myth, fairy tales, or folk tales

Sunday, January 06, 2013

I know I'm a little behind on this as well, but I really wanted to revisit my favorite reads of 2012 before moving on to the new year. I already have reviews posted for most of them, but the few I don't are scheduled to appear this month. So, without further ado, my top ten favorite reads of 2012:

Middle Grade:

Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway is the beautifully told story of Abby, a completely "ordinary" girl in a magical world. I loved Rubino-Bradway's world building almost as much as I loved the relationships between her characters.

Young Adult:

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga is one of those books that takes hold of you and doesn't let go. I devoured it, loved it, and still can't stop thinking about it. Jaz is such an incredibly creepy, wonderful, complex character, and I can't wait to learn more about him.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman is one of those rare novels that I would almost dare call perfect. At least perfect for me. It is an amazing representation of high fantasy with exceptional world building and positive representations of women!!!! There is math! and logic! and romance! and dragons!

And All The Stars by Andrea K Höst completely took me by surprise. Aside from the fact that it is self-published and still knocks the socks off almost everything else I read this year, it is also just an amazingly well done novel. Höst manages to ask some really big questions while being incredibly entertaining, and I just can't get this book out of my head.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan is another one of those perfect for me books. It is an exceptional (though cliffhangery) beginning to a gothic series in the style of Mary Stewart, only YA, and modernized. Again, when I try to talk about this book I turn into a gushy fan-girl. Just read it.

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard is the story of Bria, a young girl who tries to leave herself behind and instead finds herself. It was full of quotable quotes and insightful bits about travelling and had an adorably believable romance.

Preloved by Shirley Marr is a ghost story. About a modern girl and a ghost from the 80s. It's so funny that I choked myself laughing more than once. It's Australian -- which is the YA equivalent of saying PURE GOLD. What is not to love?

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross is part fairytale retelling and part fairytale reinvention. I love that Cross brings in the dark bits of old Grimm fairytales, incorporates things the Disney generations would be familiar with, and still manages to create a wonderfully fresh world.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is simply stunning. It is historical fiction, but still completely true in everything that really matters. It is gut-wrenchingly beautiful and horrible all at once. I defy you to read it and not cry.

Adult Fiction:

Chasing Magic by Stacia Kane is actually just the newest in the DownsideGhostsSeries, many of which were published in 2012. Stacia Kane went from being a completely unknown-to-me author to one of my favorite urban fantasy authors with this series. It is dark and gritty and I can't stop reading it.

And that is the short-list for 2012. What were some of your favorite reads last year?

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Amy has enough to deal with for one lifetime. A superstitious Chinese mother. A best friend whose mood changes as dramatically as her hair colour. A reputation for being strange. The last thing she needs is to be haunted by someone only she can see.

Logan is a ghost from the Eighties. He could be dangerous. He's certainly annoying.

He might also be Amy's dream boy.

Review:

I think the best way to sum up Shirley Marr's Preloved is to say, whatever you are expecting? It isn't that. Not exactly, anyway. I read tons of reviews that try to explain. Marr says it herself when she describes it as "more a bad romance, less of a love story. And it's more abnormal than paranormal," but still, I went in thinking I knew what it would be. I was wrong, and I was blown away. I tore open my manila mailer, seated myself on the couch, and started reading. I sort of grunted incoherently at my husband as he thrust a glass of tea and a sandwich in my hand somewhere around dinner time, only to finally surface hours later to a quietly sleeping house.

I went in expecting a book that would extol the awesomeness of the 80s -- The Cure, Labyrinth, Princess Bride, Rainbows on everything. And they were all there; but so was the Challenger, Chernobyl and the fall of the Berlin Wall. I expected a little gratuitous nostalgia or the 80s used as an "exotic" backdrop (Hah! Now I know why my mom would get twitchy when we talked about how long ago the 60s were!) Marr was able to display the 80s in all their fab-glam glory while still showing that everyday people were living out their lives -- just as they are today.

I went in expecting a love story. And, boy does it deliver! Only, it's not of the teen romance variety (yep, there's a bit of bad romance there). Instead, it is about familial love. Amy and her mother have hands down one of the best mother/daughter relationships I have ever read. Marr helps you feel everything between them: the push and pull, the frustration, the suffocating clingyness, and the all-encompassing, ever-abiding love.

It was interesting as an American to explore the evolution of slang and trends not only between the 1980s and now, but also America and Australia. I think most Americans would, unlike Amy, still recognize and use the word "spaz" (my little brother calls me this on a regular basis), but I had no clue what was going on with this Mr. Matey thing until I YouTubed it. (We had Mr. Bubble; just as creepy but at least no talking of taking off clothes!) I also completely love the way Marr incorporated Chinese culture. I was fascinated by all the different superstitions, traditions and rituals. It made my day when I found out that ALL of them are true, told straight to Marr from her mother.

I also think it is incredible that in amongst all the 80s camp and ghostly shenanigans, Marr was able to write a wonderfully compelling and relatable story about a young girl coming of age and coming to terms with who those around her really are, and what they mean to her. It will be worth the extra work to get my own copy.

Quote:

Did they have eating disorders, teen suicide and mean girls back in the 1980s?

Of course they did, I told myself. It's the nostalgia old people have that makes them see the past with rose-coloured glasses. When I have grandchildren, I'll probably look back and think this was the best day of my life. p 39

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

Review:

One of the reasons I think I love retellings of fairytales so much has to do with the way I view them. People have a tendency to think of Grimm's versions as being the 'original' or the 'accurate' or the 'real' version--but that isn't really true at all. Fairytales didn't start out as something that people read and wrote, but something that people listened to or were told. Fairytales are part of our oral history. The same tale could change in details from storyteller to storyteller, or with the same storyteller from night to night. The stories we have written down in Grimm's collection, then, can be looked at as a sort of blueprint of essentials--the skeleton of the story remains the same, but what makes them important, vital, or intriguing is in what way the next storyteller will chose to flesh it out and bring it to life. Sadly, in our often Disney-fied society, we get so caught up in the beauty, the romance, the magic, and the adventure that the darker parts inherent in the often cautionary tales get glossed over, downplayed, or completely removed. That doesn't mean, however, that the Disney versions have not become part of our collective consciousness of fairytales--they are just as legitimate a contribution as the versions set down by Grimm.

Sarah Cross is one of the first authors I have read who seems to agree with that assessment. She is definitely trying to bring the dark bits back--and she does so in horrifyingly beautiful and original ways. (Gwen, my soul cries for you.) However, she is just as quick to toss out references to the Disney versions of fairytales as she is the Grimm versions, treating them like different but equal parts of the same oral history. Fairies fighting over pink and blue frosting meet stepsisters with chopped off toes. Cross recognizes and accepts that Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are as much a part of our cultural baggage as the blood-filled glass slipper.

The thing that fascinates me most about how Cross approaches fairytales, though, is how she chooses to let them play out for different characters. We very rarely find versions--even the dark, old versions--where the prince and princess don't end up living happily ever after. However, Cross shows us that just because the blueprint is followed does not mean that what comes of it will be pretty or good. We usually try to color in it in with happy things, but the details could be ugly and still fill the requirements.

She allows this extra layer of darkness in by frankly exploring the idea of free will. Here in the real world, the idea of everything being part of a bigger picture or plan is often comforting. It is easier to accept loss, pain, or suffering if we think that it is all for a good cause. However, there is never a real way for us to know what that plan may be. We have the feeling of freely making choices to go with that comfort. No such luck for Cross' characters. For them, their future is there for all to see. Everyone knows what will happen next, and, even if they try to fight it, fate steps in and pushes them back where they are supposed to be. Cross does an excellent job of showing how truly terrifying that would be, how helpless that could make you feel.

I also think Cross does an excellent job of subverting fairytale ideals in favor of the richer nuance of reality. Jillian discusses this much better than I in her review, but I like that Cross often uses exaggerated tropes in order to highlight the difference between them and something better. Yes, there is Instalove with Felix, and meant-to-be with Freddie, but no one but Mira (and poor Freddie) ever sees them as something good or right or viable--certainly not the reader! As a reader, I always felt uncomfortable when Mira was with Felix, and felt...well, nothing when she was with Freddie. These relationships pale when compared to Mira's relationship with Blue; they serve to show how much better is the love that grows between two characters who first get to know each other, then like each other, before finally falling in love with each other. I also like how, through these relationships, Cross shows that tradional fairytale roles can be just as unfair to the men as women.

Kill Me Softly is beautiful, dark, mysterious, funny, familiar, and disarming. It is a fascinating blend of the subtle and the obvious. I think it would be equally rewarding for the fairytale enthusiast (ticking off references like an English Major reading The Wasteland) as it would be for the Disney aficionado.

Quotes:

Then she stepped into the yard, like a thief in reverse: breaking and exiting. Stealing herself.

The razor blade hanging from her neck made her feel brave. Honest. A naked blade hid nothing, feared nothing. She wanted to be like that. Because that was how you found yourself, created yourself. You didn't hide. You didn't wait for the perfect moment to settle on you like a butterfly, like magic.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Confined to their dreary castle while mourning their mother's death, Princess Azalea and her 11 sisters join The Keeper, who is trapped in a magic passageway, in a nightly dance that soon becomes nightmarish.

Review:

(Highlight for Spoilers)

I love when fairy tales are revisited by an author that respects them, loves them, and can then build upon them. Heather Dixon seems to be such an author. Entwined is a retelling of Grimm's "The Shoes that Were Danced to Pieces," but it is also much, much more. Dixon does an excellent job of turning a story about twelve rather frivolous girls into a complex story about grief, family, and the difficult choices made in difficult times. However, I feel very mixed about this book, so I will review it in lists.

The Good:

My overall impression was of a beautiful, well crafted world. Dixon took the bare bones of the Grimm story and made it a living, breathing thing. Borrowing different elements of her Eathesburian folklore from folktales and fairy tales lent them authenticity, but she combined them in a way that felt distinct and fresh.

I love the relationship between the girls. Even though the story is told primarily from the point of view of the eldest, Azalea, all of the girls are given distinct personalities. The younger girls may be a bit more two dimensional than the eldest three, but the way the girls all interact with each other just works. Dixon really has a feel for large family dynamics.

I like that the relationships between the eldest three girls and their love interests are reciprocal and healthy. (Spoiler) Okay, Bramble and Teddie may have been a bit too love at first sight, but I just assumed there was more going on that I didn't see because the story was following Azalea. (End Spoiler) I also like that they each feel like real guys you might actually meet. None are paragons of virtue, nor are they damaged bad boys.

The bad guy is bad. Really creepy bad.

It is hard not to like a King that is so quirky in his need for organization that his daughters are all named for flowers in alphabetical order. I really enjoyed watching his personality develop.

I really liked the way dance is woven throughout the story in a way that shows just how vital it is to the girls. Dixon takes the very element that made the princesses seem frivolous in the Grimm story and uses it to ground them.

I also like that the girls help save themselves. The men may charge in for the rescue, but they fight alongside the princesses.

The not as good:

I don't understand why the girls feel as they do about Fairweller. There is never really any justification for their negative feelings. (Spoiler) And when they object to his marriage to Clover, it just feels really classist and shallow. He is the only employee, rather than family friend, to ask to marry one of the daughters. Even in the face of Clover's justification for her affection, he is still dismissed out of hand. I really didn't like it. (End Spoiler)

The King's relationship with his daughters. I'm sorry, but if they used to call him Papa, when did he change to "the King?" I could understand if he was originally affectionate, then became cool because their mother died. I could also understand if he were originally reserved in his affection, then thawed because their mother's death forced him to interact with the girls in a new way. However, it is just confusing that they all used to be close and he was outwardly affectionate. Then he had the middle coldness period where he became "the King" and forced them to learn all sorts of rules. When he comes back from the war he is magically caring again. That personality change in the middle is unrelated to any part of the plot to which we as the readers are privy. The set up for the familial distance just didn't make sense and felt too contrived. They were at odds because they had to be at odds for Keeper to meet the girls. They get a better relationship because they have to for the King to save the girls. That said, I liked watching him redevelop his relationship with his daughters, and it often was really touching.

The bad guy is bad. Really creepy bad. I know I said that was a good thing, and it is. It's just that, well, everyone else gets a real story. A human, relatable reason for participating in the fairy tale. Keeper's personality is very well developed, but his motivation - his story - is not. (Spoiler) Considering how much we are told about The High King D"Eathe, all the hits dropped about his one love and the magic he performed, I think we could have done with just a little more. WHY did he kill her? WHY did power become more important? WHAT made him change? (End Spoiler) It would be okay if all the characters were just moving mechanically through the fairy tale, but to provide the WHYs for every other character but the Keeper made the absence of his WHYs even more apparent.

Right after I finished Entwined, my problems with it felt rather large. However, the longer I got away from it, the more positive I felt about the book. It really is beautifully written and the characters are lovely.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for mere pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril.

Review:

One of the hardest parts of becoming a parent, in my opinion, is having to crystallize in words what it is that we believe, to articulate with precision that which we have only vaguely felt to be true before. To have to look into the eyes of a child who trusts us and answer a question like, "Why do we have war?" One thing that has become clear for me in the past few years is that I do not believe in "Good Guys" or "Bad Guys." We each of us make a thousand decisions every day that slowly shape us into the person we are - dynamic, not static. Sometimes we make good decisions and sometimes we make bad ones, but at the end of the day, we are still all people. It may not seem like this has anything to do with Magic Under Glass, but it does! I promise!

The world in which Dolamore has created is rich in cultural texture. The story is fast paced and intriguing. However, where I feel Dolamore really shines is in her characterizations. So often in YA we are given villains who do bad things because they are just evil. Not so for Magic Under Glass. The characters are weak and strong. They make bad choices for good reasons and good choices for bad reasons. There is room for redemption. I appreciate the shades of grey. Without ever becoming preachy, Dolamore shows how racism can come from a place of smug superiority, or from a place of fear. She shows how people who want the same thing for their country can come to diametrically opposed positions on how that can be achieved. There is more than one way to be courageous. She shows how passion can be good - and how it can lead to zealotry. Dolamore's characters are neither "good guys" nor "bad guys," they are simply people who have made good choices and people who have made bad ones, but they all had their reasons. I can not wait to see where they go from here. I will absolutely be reading her next book.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Princess Talia of Euphrasia pricks her finger on a spindle, causing the entire kingdom to fall asleep for 300 years. They awaken when Talia is kissed by Jack, a teenager sent by his parents to tour Europe for the summer. A Kiss In Time is obviously a modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty.

I try really hard to write balanced reviews. I try to point out the good with the bad. I'm having a hard time finding the good here. I should start by saying that I really enjoyed Flinn's Beastly, and I love fairytale retellings, so I went into A Kiss in Time with pretty high expectations. I came out really disappointed.

First, Flinn does an excellent job in Beastly of bringing the classic elements of the fairytale as well as the magic into the modern world in a plausible way. That just didn't happen for A Kiss in Time. There are so many contradictions in the world building that it just feels lazy. How is it that the Eurphrasia is completely forgotten by all of Europe, but the insulted concierge is able to send Jack directly to it? And how are the spires of a Castle in a supposedly forgotten Kingdom visible from a plane? What teenage boy could know a girl (who is wearing a full-on ball gown) for a few hours then walk into a Gap and buy her clothes that fit? How many manufactures of fake IDs are hanging out in Gap and willing to do business with a teenager? For that matter, how many Gaps are there in rural Belgium? I don't believe Flinn's contemporary world, much less the magical elements. (ETA: It also doesn't help that I was continually thinking about how much better OSC handled all of this in Enchantment.)

The characters are even worse. Talia is a spoiled brat, thoroughly nasty in her own time. I understand that she felt stifled, but her behavior was more that of a 6 year old than a 16 year old. The modern day Talia is irreconcilable as the same character - she has a completely different personality. Jack is shallow, selfish and self centered. He is lazy and ungrateful, completely unaware of anyone around him. Each of their parents are studies in extremes - either overbearing in their care or completely hands off. The only character for whom I felt ANY compassion was Malvolia, but that was more picking the best out of a bad lot. They were all cardboard. The HEA was forced and contrived.

It feels like Flinn was just going through the motions with this one, and I feel frustrated that I wasted my time with it. I know this is not the best she can do, so I will continue to read her work. However, I will do it more cautiously in the future.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. Or so she thinks. Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

Review:

Opression is a relatively quick read, a mostly fast-paced, plot-driven novel with lots of action. It was fun while reading; and Therrien comes up with some interesting new ideas about Greek Gods and their Mythos. It is a pretty strong debut, and infinitely better than most of the other YA books taking on the Gods right now. (Yes, Goddess Test and Starcrossed, I'm looking at you.)

Unfortunately, Therrien's characters seriously lack consistency; and this inconsistency can be found in all of her characters, to varying degrees, but especially Elyse, Will and Kara. Of these three, Kara's conflicting actions and character traits are the most easily reconciled because we are allowed to see her motivations toward the end of the novel. Elyse and Will, however, remain an odd mixture of excellent traits and terrible ones. Elyse at times appears very strong, smart and independent. Sometimes she gets really angry when she sees bad things happen, and gets ready to take on injustices. At other times she just meekly allows other people to tell her what to do or what she can or cannot know. Similarly, she can completely dismissed REALLY TERRIBLE THINGS from her mind right after they happen so that they will not ruin her or her friends' fun. Will, likewise, can go from a really sweet, romantic guy to bit of a jerk without much warning. He keeps things from her 'for her own good.' And, naturally, there is Instalove with a lot of MeantToBe thrown in.

There are also some pretty serious (possibly spoilery!) holes in the world building. It doesn't really make sense that everyone within the world of the Descendants knows about the prophecy, but no one really does anything about it for most of the novel. Nor does it make sense that - knowing Elyse is supposed to lead their upcoming war - the "adults" within their community take a hands-off you'll-figure-it-out approach to her education. Also, what is with these "kids" going to school for 80+ years? (Presumably it is a result of the complete lack of required attendance policy they seemed to have?) Along the same lines, what is with allowing all these student to be taught by the previous leader of a rebellion and the husband of the woman who predicted the next one? It seems to me that the Council would exercise a bit more control over who was teaching the next generation.

I didn't really like how extreme the cliff hanger was - the last chapter almost seemed like it would do better as the first chapter of the next book - , nor did I think the novel was flawless, but I do think that Oppression was a pretty nice series start, and I will give the sequel at least the Library try.

book evangelism

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about

I'm a music-addicted crafter. I'm a gardener when it's easy and a mom even when it isn't. Most of all, I read. I read when I'm happy, when I'm sad, to hide from things or to find things; I read when I have time, and even when I don't. This is my space to share that passion.